Tuvan Railway Project Likely to Receive State Handouts

Projects, including some connected to Kremlin-friendly oligarchs, have made a shortlist to get money for infrastructure projects from the state investment fund.

The Economic Development and Trade Ministry, which oversees the fund, confirmed that an interministerial committee had shortlisted 12 of 46 bids to receive a total of 70 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) available this year. Yenisey Industrial Company (YeIC), an arm of United Industrial Corporation, is hoping to get $2 billion from the state to build a railway lining the vast Elegestskoye coal field in the Tuva Republic to the Kuragino railway station.

Yenisey Industrial Company has been holding a license for developing Elegest coal field for already four years without any move to start works there. Tuvan deputies launched an official inquiry to Tuvan senator Sergei Pugachev, one of the Russia's richest men, who is supposed to be linked to a coal deal, about his intentions in regard to Elegest coal. No answer followed.

It is rumoured that after YeIC gets a state investment for a railway project it will sell the Elegest licence.

A Tuvan railway project has been actively lobbied on the federal 1st TV channel before the distribution of the state investments is made, stressing in the news bloc the Tuvan neccesity for a railway connection.